South Korea will establish a cyberpolicy department to oversee policies and prepare information security measures.

The new unit's top priority is to develop defensive cyberwarfare weapons.

This follows the launch of the country's cybercommand division in early 2010 to handle cybersecurity issues along with different military and intelligence organizations, said a report Tuesday by Yonhap news. It noted there was so far no control tower to integrate the policies and strategies to protect military networks.

The unit will within the first half of this year, and will be tasked with developing defensive cyberwarfare methods and recruiting more forces to carry out cyberspace operations, an official told the news site.

"The department's top priority will be developing defense cyberwarfare weapons to protect military networks that are subject to enemy's attacks," the official said, declining to be named.

This follows a day after the defense ministry said it would increase its cyberwarfare forces and step up its partnership in the area with the United States.